List of cultural references to A Clockwork Orange

Popular culture references to Anthony Burgess' novel A Clockwork Orange (1962) and Stanley Kubrick's 1971 film adaptation have been wide-ranging, from popular music and television to movies and other media.^[1][2] Some references are based on themes central to the story, such as the use of Nadsat words or phrases, whilst others have incorporated visual elements from the film. The film made Kubrick one of the most influential artists of the 20th century,^[1] and the film has become a cult classic.^[3]

Fashion

• The film version influenced bands' fashion styles.^[4]

Films

• The film version of A Clockwork Orange immediately revolutionized the science fiction film genre, opening the way for other films to portray elaborate dystopian narratives and to intelligently analyze social dilemmas. Many film directors have borrowed themes and cinematic techniques from the film.^[1] The film is an essential part of modern cinema and films often reference it,^[5] with examples of films using similar cinematic techniques to A Clockwork Orange including THX 1138 (1971), Westworld (1973) and A Boy and His Dog (1975).^[1] The June 2006 issue of Entertainment Weekly named A Clockwork Orange the second most controversial film of all time, after The Passion of the Christ.^[6]
• The torture scene in Reservoir Dogs (1992), set to "Stuck in the Middle With You", was described by Quentin Tarantino in an interview as a direct reference to the scene in A Clockwork Orange where Alex kicks the writer and rapes his wife to the tune of "Singin' in the Rain". A Clockwork Orange is also referenced at the beginning of the film when all the men are walking in slow motion, as Alex and his droogs did.^[7][8]
• In Trainspotting (1996), director Danny Boyle referenced the bar Alex and his droogs sit in during the opening scene, where a club has similar text-based wall art.^[9]
• A reference to A Clockwork Orange was made in the Coen brothers film Fargo (1996) when a character says that they're in town for "the old in and out".^[10]
• In Batman & Robin (1997), gang members resembling droogs from A Clockwork Orange can be seen.^[11]
• In the 1999 film South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut, Cartman is made forcibly averse to swearing through the implantation of a V-chip, much like Alex's subjection to the Ludovico technique. As with Alex, Cartman eventually loses this aversion but can use the V-chip's electroshocks that once harmed him on other people.
• In Gangster No. 1, a 2000 British crime film, Malcolm McDowell, who played Alex in the film, plays the protagonist gangster as a sort of older version of Alex.^[12]
• The protagonist in Good Bye, Lenin! (2003) is named Alex, and the film features a furniture-shifting scene set to a sped-up synthesized version of the "William Tell Overture".^[13]
• In Richard E. Grant's film Wah-Wah (2005), the main character, Grant himself as a child, takes comfort in watching a late-night screening of the film.^[14]
• In the film Tenacious D in the Pick of Destiny (2006), Jack Black, while trying to sleep on a park bench, is assaulted by a gang dressed as the droogs.^[15]
• Heath Ledger said he was inspired by Alex DeLarge to play the Joker in The Dark Knight (2008).^[16]

Literature

The original Chinese title of A Perfect Crime (下面我该干些什么?) by Chinese author A Yi (translated by Anna Holmwood) was based on the opening line of A Clockwork Orange: "What's it going to be then, eh?"^[17][18]

Music

• David Bowie started most of his concerts during his Ziggy Stardust period with Beethoven's Ninth Symphony from the film's soundtrack, and used the film as inspiration for stage costumes during that time. Bowie's lyric "say droogie don’t crash here!" in the song "Suffragette City" referenced Alex's word for his friends,^[19] and many of the lyrics in the song "Girl Loves Me" from his last album, Blackstar, are in Nadsat.^[20]
• John Bonham of Led Zeppelin wore an outfit similar to Alex's while touring in 1975.^[6]
• A Clockwork Orange, like other dystopian science fiction novels, had an important influence on industrial and cyberpunk music.^[4]
• The WEA subsidiary record label Korova, named for the film's Korova Milk Bar, was founded in 1979 for post-punk band Echo & the Bunnymen and later issued recordings by artists such as The Sound and Strawberry Switchblade.^[21]
• Post-punk band Scars referenced the film on "Horrorshow", the B-side of their debut single, "Adult/ery" (1979).^[22]
• Heaven 17, a synthpop band from Sheffield, England who formed in 1980, named themselves after a fictional pop group in the book and film.^[23]
• Rosemary's Babies, a Lodi, NJ hardcore punk band formed in 1981, included a reference to "ultraviolence" in their song "Happy Song".^[24] Their vocalist J.R. dressed as a droog in publicity photos and on the covers of their 1981 EP Blood Lust and its later CD release as Talking to the Dead.^[25] Both J.R. and drummer Eerie Von dressed as droogs during live performances.
• The group New Order titled one of their songs "Ultra-Violence" on their album Power, Corruption and Lies (1983).^[26]
• The lyrics of the song "Uno, dos, ultraviolento", from the 1985 Y ahora que pasa, eh? album by Argentinian punk rock band Los Violadores, were inspired by A Clockwork Orange.^[27]
• Seminal punk rock band Ramones named their 1984 instrumental song "Durango 95" after the car given a joyride by Alex and his droogs, and the band dressed up as characters from A Clockwork Orange on the front of the album it appeared on, Too Tough to Die.
• Cyberpunk band Sigue Sigue Sputnik referenced the film numerous times in their work. Debut single "Love Missile F1-11" (1986) opened with the word "ultraviolence" sampled directly from Alex's opening monologue in the film. This was followed by a few bars of the film's opening theme which faded into the song. Later, the phrase "righty-right", sampled from the scene where the hospitalized Alex is being assessed by the psychologist, can be heard. Part of the video made to accompany the single's release was shot in the Trinity Road underpass in Wandsworth, the same underpass where Alex and his droogs attack the vagrant at the beginning of the film. The band also recorded a song called "Ultra Violence (Senseless Sex and Gratuitous Violence)", featuring some lyrics in Nadsat; it was included on their 1990 compilation album The First Generation.
• The 1987 music video for "Welcome to the Jungle" by Guns N' Roses featured scenes of lead singer Axl Rose strapped in a chair with a brace on his forehead while watching stacked TVs with various images of violence and sex, much like the Ludovico technique.^[28]
• The title of the Death Angel album The Ultra-Violence (1987) is a reference to A Clockwork Orange.
• In 1988, German punk rock band Die Toten Hosen released a concept album Ein kleines bisschen Horrorschau (a reference to Alex's Nadsat phrase, "a bit of [the old] horrorshow [ultraviolence])", including the single "Hier Kommt Alex" ("Here Comes Alex"). The members were also involved as musicians in a German stage production of A Clockwork Orange in 1988, and in 1994 they released an English version called "The Return of Alex".^[29]
• The 1991 single release of U2's "The Fly" featured the B-side "Alex Descends Into Hell for a Bottle of Milk/Korova 1", from the score of the Royal Shakespeare Company's production of A Clockwork Orange. The performance was scored by Bono and The Edge.^[30]
• In 1991, English gabba/industrial band Ultraviolence took their name from the film.^[31]
• British indie group Campag Velocet took the word "Velocet" in their name from a word written on the wall in the opening scene of the film.^[32]
• Anglo-Irish band Moloko, who debuted in 1995, took their name from the slang term for milk (itself from the Russian word for milk, молоко)^[32][33]
• Blur borrowed imagery from A Clockwork Orange for the music video to their song "The Universal" (1995).^[9]
• The song "Well, Well, Well" from the album Giant Robot (1996) by Buckethead's band of the same name contains samples from the film.
• The music video for "Pacifier" by Shihad, from their 1999 album The General Electric featured the band dressed as droogs in the Korova Milk Bar and also reenacting the film's joyride scene.^[34]
• On the D12 track "American Psycho" from Devil's Night (2001), Eminem referenced the film in the line "So lock your doors, drop to the floors, get your shotguns drawn, here comes another Clockwork Orange".
• American rapper Cage originally used the stage name "Alex", after the novel's protagonist.^[35] Cage's 2002 debut, Movies for the Blind, featured a song titled "Agent Orange", in which he sampled Wendy Carlos' "Title Music from A Clockwork Orange" and paraphrased the opening scene of the film, in which Alex and his friends are drinking spiked milk and deciding what to do for the night.
• The title and music video of Rob Zombie's "Never Gonna Stop (The Red Red Kroovy)" were inspired by the film.^[36]
• Kylie Minogue wore a white jumper and fake eyelashes, similar to Alex's, while performing on her 2001 Fever tour.^[9]
• Polish band Myslovitz's album Korova Milky Bar (2002) referred to the film, comparing it to the present situation in Poland.^[37]
• Japanese metal band Dir En Grey referenced A Clockwork Orange in their song "Marmalade Chainsaw", from 2003 album Vulgar.
• Dream Theater used Wendy Carlos' theme from A Clockwork Orange to open shows on their Octavarium tour in 2005-06. The film is a favorite of Mike Portnoy, the band's drummer at the time.
• Gnarls Barkley dressed as characters in the film for a 2006 publicity shoot.^[6][38]
• Cavalera Conspiracy's 2008 song "Ultra-Violent" was based on A Clockwork Orange.^[39]
• The Sepultura album A-Lex (2009) was based on A Clockwork Orange.^[40]
• In her unreleased 2009 song "Hundred Dollar Bill", Lana Del Rey referenced the book: "Cause I love your ultra-violent swing, I like it when you treat me mean". The title of her album Ultraviolence (2014) was also a reference to A Clockwork Orange.^[41]
• The title of Arjen Anthony Lucassen's Star One second album, Victims of the Modern Age (2010), was a direct quote from the film. The title track was based on A Clockwork Orange, with Russell Allen from Symphony X singing as the character Alex.^[42]
• My Chemical Romance frontman Gerard Way occasionally dressed as Alex,^[6][43] and the band's 2010 album Danger Days: The True Lives of the Fabulous Killjoys was inspired by the film.^[44][45]
• Lady Gaga used music from the film as entrance music during concerts in 2010.^[46]

Periodicals

• "A Crockwork Lemon", a Mad satire by writer Stan Hart and artist George Woodbridge, appeared in the June 1973 issue. Norman Mingo's illustration for the cover showed Alfred E. Neuman as Alex.^[47]

Television

• In an 1973 episode of The Goodies, titled "Invasion of the Moon Creatures", Tim Brooke-Taylor and Bill Oddie return from the moon brainwashed by rabbits; they are seen harassing and beating people dressed in costumes like Alex's gang, albeit with rabbit ears on their heads and with buck teeth.
• A season 4 episode (1981) of BBC children's series Grange Hill featured a shoplifting scene set in a clothes shop called Clockwork Orange.
• The Simpsons contains frequent references to the film.^[48][49] In the episode "Dog of Death" (March 12, 1992), Mr. Burns brainwashes the Simpsons' dog Santa's Little Helper into being one of his attack dogs by using the Ludovico technique. In the episode "Treehouse of Horror III" (October 29, 1992), Bart dresses up as Alex DeLarge from the film. Also, in the episode "Duffless" (February 18, 1993), as a result of Lisa's electroshock therapy, Bart experiences difficulty in reaching for the cupcakes after dinner, in a manner similar to the effects of Alex's therapy; in particular, one shot parodies the film, with Bart looking up at the cupcakes on the table, in the same way Alex looks up to the actress' chest after his therapy. In the episode "Treehouse of Horror XXI", at the end of a segment titled "Master and Cadaver", Maggie is seen wearing Alex's hat and eyelash. She drinks milk from her bottle with the film's theme song playing. On October 19, 2014, the show parodied the film with a segment titled "A Clockwork Yellow" in the episode "Treehouse of Horror XXV".^[50]
• There have been many references to the film on South Park (when asked to name something he considered a mind-altering work of art, series co-creator Trey Parker said, "It's super cliché, but A Clockwork Orange really did fuck me up".)^[51] In the show's controversial 201st episode, "201" (2010), Mitch Connor (Cartman's hand-puppet) pretends to be a black man and asks to use the telephone at someone's house, alluding to the similar scene in A Clockwork Orange. In episode 206, "Coon 2: Hindsight" (2010), the scene where the Coon attacks the rest of his gang was reminiscent of the scene in which one of the Clockwork Orange droogs insists things be run in a "new way" that entails less power for Alex, who responds by attacking them while walking in order to re-establish his leadership.^[52] The scene also has the same music playing: an excerpt from the overture of The Thieving Magpie by Gioacchino Rossini. In episode 245, "A Song of Ass and Fire" (2013), the phallus-shaped sculpture in the house of George R. R. Martin is the same one Alex used to kill the Cat Lady.
• In the British TV show The Thick of It (2005-2012), Nicola Murray referred to her daughter as "...turning into a total droog". In a later episode, Phil Smith referred to the character of Terri Coverley as "Terri's Clockwork Orange" (also a reference to Terry's Chocolate Orange, a type of chocolate in England).
• In the Phineas and Ferb episode "Phineas and Ferb Get Busted!" (2009), the military school the boys are sent to after getting busted uses the Ludovico technique in order to stop Phineas and Ferb from using their imagination.^[53]
• The title of the Fanboy & Chum Chum episode "A Bopwork Orange" (2010) directly referenced A Clockwork Orange; the title card of the episode also directly parodied the film's poster. The episode also featured Beethoven's Ninth Symphony and its plot could be seen as a parody of the film.
• In the Regular Show episode "The Unicorns Have Got to Go" (2010), one of the unicorns is clearly dressed as Alex DeLarge and/or one of his droogs.
• In the series Franklin & Bash (2011-2014), Malcolm McDowell's character uses the phrase "bit of the old in and out".
• In "Moving On" (2013), a season 9 episode of The Office, Andy Bernard (Ed Helms) nicknames Clark Duke (Clark Green) "Clarkwork Orange".
• In "Untitled", the fifth episode of season 5 of Louie (2015), Louie's daughter Lily describes watching the movie during a sleepover to her father while they shop in a grocery store. Louie responds negatively.
• In "Contorno", the fifth episode of season 3 of "Hannibal" (2015), the same section of Rossini's "The Thieving Magpie" used in A Clockwork Orange was played on a record player during a fight between Jack Crawford and Hannibal Lecter in Florence, Italy. Executive producer Bryan Fuller described the scene as "a full on homage to Kubrick's A Clockwork Orange" on Twitter.^[54]
• In the 2015 SpongeBob SquarePants episode "Squid Plus One/The Executive Treatment", Patrick Star is assigned prisoner number "665321" in reference to "655321", Alex's prisoner number in A Clockwork Orange.
• In the Star vs. the Forces of Evil episode "St. Olga's Reform School for Wayward Princesses" (2015), the brainwashing video Marco is forced to watch is similar to the Ludovico technique used in the film.

Sports

• The Netherlands national football team was nicknamed Clockwork Orange in the 1974 FIFA World Cup, for its playing organization, which became known as Total Football, combined with the orange color of its uniform.^[55]
• While appearing for Total Nonstop Action Wrestling, Raven created the eponymous Clockwork Orange House of Fun match.^[56]
• Professional wrestler Patrick Martin takes the first part of his ring name Alex Shelley from Alex DeLarge.^[57]
• The Princeton University men's ultimate frisbee team is named Clockwork Orange, while their women's team is Lady Clockwork.^[58]

Video games

• The opening cutscene to Rare Nintendo 64 video game Conker's Bad Fur Day (2001) was a homage to the film.^[59]
• In Grand Theft Auto IV (2008), playing for a combined total of around 75 hours will cause the game to state the player's Addiction Level as "Ready for the old ultra-violence", a reference to the phrase said by Alex in the beginning of the film.
• The character Mr. Umblla (Ｍｒ．アンブラ, lit. Mr. Umbra, alternatively known as Mr. Umbrella), its respective trial "Code: Present" and the Umblla mag device in Japanese online game Phantasy Star Online 2 (2012) were references to Alex and some of the film's themes.
• A limited Clockwork Orange-style costume for Moe Szyslak (called "Moog") was released for the 2012 game The Simpsons: Tapped Out as a tie-in to the annual The Simpsons Halloween episode, "Treehouse of Horror XXV" (which featured a parody titled "A Clockwork Yellow"). The costume could only be unlocked by playing on consecutive days in the lead-up to the premiere of the episode, and collecting all four parts of the costume.
• In Borderlands 2 (2012), various Vladof guns are named using the Nadsat slang from the movie and book.
• The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth (2014) includes an item called the Ludovico Technique.

References

1. Thill, Scott (2002). St. James Encyclopedia of Popular Culture. Gale Group.
2. Melanya Burrows (2005-01-28). "Addicted to Droogs". The New Zealand Herald. Retrieved 2007-08-14.
3. Hills, Matt (2002). Fan Cultures. Routledge. ISBN 0-415-24024-7.
4. Collins, Karen (2005). "Dead Channel Surfing: The commonalities between cyberpunk literature and industrial music". Popular Music (24). pp. 165–178.
5. Russel, Catherine, 1995, Narrative Mortality: Death, Closure, and New Wave Cinemas, University of Minnesota Press, ISBN 0-8166-2485-2.
6. "Entertainment Weekly". June 2006.
7. Richards, Jeffrey, 1997, Films and British National Identity: From Dickens to Dad's Army, Manchester University, ISBN 0-7190-4743-9.
8. Reservoir Dogs, Films in Review
9. Biswell, Adam (2012), "Foreword", in Burgess, Anthony, A Clockwork Orange, New York, New York: W. W. Norton & Company, pp. xx
10. Rowell, Erica (2007), The Brothers Grim: The Films of Ethan and Joel Coen, Scarecrow Publishing
11. "Trivia time! The top movie easter eggs". Virgin Media. Retrieved 2014-01-17.
12. Nelmes, Jill, 2003, An Introduction to Film Studies, Routledge, ISBN 0-415-26268-2.
13. "A Brief Survey of 'A Clockwork Orange' in Pop Culture". Flavorwire. Retrieved 2014-01-17.
14. "Wah-Wah (2006)". BBC. Retrieved 2014-01-17.
15. Jones, J.R. "Tenacious D in The Pick of Destiny". Chicago Reader. Retrieved 2012-04-02.
16. Reagan, Gillian (2012-03-23). "For Joker, Heath Ledger Channels Sid Vicious, A Clockwork Orange | The New York Observer". Observer.com. Retrieved 2012-04-02.
17. http://cul.china.com.cn/weekend/2012-02/23/content_4829922.htm
18. http://paper-republic.org/pubs/read/whos-speaking-please/
19. O'Leary, Chris (5 May 2010). "Suffragette City". Pushing Ahead of the Dames. Retrieved 5 July 2015.
20. http://www.newyorker.com/culture/culture-desk/the-beautiful-meaninglessness-of-david-bowie
21. Adams, Chris Adams. Turquoise Days: The Weird World of Echo & the Bunnymen.
22. "Julian Cope’s Album of the Month". Retrieved 2014-01-17.
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27. When Punk Came out to Confront the Idiots in Power Read more Retrieved December 2, 2015
28. Tannenbaum, Rob (2011). I Want My MTV: The Uncensored Story of the Music Video Revolution. Penguin Books. ISBN 1469204142.
29. "Top five adaptations of A Clockwork Orange". Time Out Melbourne. Retrieved 2014-01-17.
30. "Single 027". U2wanderer.
31. http://www.damned-by-light.com/articles/059.html
32. Wyeth, Wyndham (April 24, 2011). "23 Band Names Inspired by Literature". Paste. Retrieved 2014-01-17.
33. James, Martin (16 June 2000). "How to milk Blondie for all they're worth". The Independent. Retrieved 20 August 2012.
34. Gallagher, Robyn (26 October 2012). "5000 Ways To Love You". Retrieved 2014-02-11.
35. "Biography of Cage". Definitive Jux. Retrieved 2008-09-09.
36. "Rob Zombie Storms Hollywood, Revisits 'Clockwork Orange'". MTV. 27 December 2001. Retrieved 2013-11-06.
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38. Williams, Ben. "Influences: Gnarls Barkley". New York. Retrieved 2014-01-17.
39. "MAX CAVALERA Says SEPULTURA Guys Didn't Like 'A Clockwork Orange' Movie". blabbermouth.net. January 16, 2009. Retrieved 2014-01-17.
40. Henderson, Alex. List of cultural references to A Clockwork Orange at AllMusic. Retrieved 2011-06-28.
41. http://www.mtv.com/news/1835453/anthony-burgess-foundation-lana-del-rey/
42. "Arjen Anthony Lucassen's Star One's "Victim of the Modern Age" Release Information". 14 December 2010. Retrieved 2013-12-30.
43. "In bold color, My Chemical Romance returns to Sayreville". The Star-Ledger. May 9, 2011. Retrieved 2014-01-17.
44. http://www.pastemagazine.com/articles/2013/06/catching-up-with-the-true-lives-of-the-fabulous-killjoys-writer-gerard-way.html
45. http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/26/arts/music/26playlist.html
46. "A Clockwork Orange: The droog rides again". The Guardian. 11 May 2011. Retrieved 2014-01-17.
47. Mad June 1973 issue #159 contents and cover image
48. Irwin, William & Skoble, Aeon J. & Conard, Mark T. (2001). The Simpsons and Philosophy: The D'oh! of Homer. Open Court Publishing. ISBN 0-8126-9433-3.
49. "D'oh! Bart's unbeatable". Daily Telegraph.
50. Fowler, Matt (26 July 2014). "SDCC 14: The Simpsons' Treehouse of Horror Doing Clockwork Orange, Weird Al to Perform for the Show, More". IGN. Retrieved 15 October 2014.
51. "Trey Parker, Matt Stone South Park team". Exclaim.ca.
52. Modell, Josh (October 27, 2010). "The Coon 2: Hindsight". AV Club. Retrieved Nov 1, 2010.
53. "Phineas and Ferb Get Busted! (Parts 1 & 2) Episode Allusions". TV.com. Retrieved 2009-07-15.
54. https://twitter.com/bryanfuller/status/617674722076196864. Missing or empty |title= (help)
55. Orejan, Jamie (2011). Football/Soccer History and Tactics, McFarland, p. 117
56. "TNA Wrestling results – March 3, 2005". Online World of Wrestling. 2005-03-03. Retrieved 2013-11-06.
57. Clevett, Jason (2004-08-25). "Alex Shelley: Next Generation superstar". Retrieved 2010-10-29. I got the Alex part from the main character of A Clockwork Orange.
58. http://www.princeton.edu/~clockwrk/
59. Ryan, Jeff (2011). Super Mario: How Nintendo Conquered America. New York: Penguin Group. ISBN 978-1591845638.

Further reading

• McDougal, Stuart Y. Stanley Kubrick's A Clockwork Orange. Cambridge University Press, 2003 ISBN 0-521-57488-9
• Marrone, Gianfranco. Ludovico's Cure. On Body and Music in "A Clockwork Orange". Legas publisher, 2009

External links

• A Clockwork Orange Media Mentions and pictures